Comments on: Financial Times 13,819 by Cincinnus

By: Bamberger

Bamberger — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 07:29:45 +0000

This was my worst attempt at a Cincinnus for a long time.
I’m no good on music or literature and didn’t have enough crossing letters to guess Paternak or Rodrigo.
Despite being pretty good on science , I hadn’t come across Americium.
Head hung in shame for not spotting Tonga.

By: Pete Maclean

Pete Maclean — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:42:01 +0000

Me too young! Well, maybe. I have never seen ‘Gigi’ and ‘the night they invented champagne’ means nothing to me.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 07:34:58 +0000

Thanks, Pete.

I totally agree with you about the quality of this puzzle and I have the same ticks as you – a double one for 29ac, which I thought was stunning.

I also had a double tick for one across, for its brilliant reference in ‘day they invented sham pain’ to the song from ‘Gigi’ [you're too young, Pete! ], ‘The night they invented champagne’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMiCGOZVkgQ

Many thanks to Cincinnus for the sparkle!

By: Pete Maclean

Pete Maclean — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 03:03:01 +0000

Ah, I was so focused on Sienna Miller that I failed to see “Anne is”. Shoulda known that Cincinnus would be unlikely to mess up like that. Thanks, Sil! I will correct the explanation.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 23:31:54 +0000

Thanks Pete. I think you should read “Girl’s fighting” as “Girl is fighting”, and hence “Girl’s fighting back” as the reversal of “ANNE IS WAR”.
But I must also say that I considered another option, namely that Cincinnus was some kind of wordblind and accidentally swapped the I and the E in “ANNIE’S WAR”. Well, who knows – not me.